“Hopefully,” Axton said with a sigh, knowing full well that his desire would not be met. “That will be the end of the bullshit for now.”

“Aaaaaand there it is, ladies and gents!” Thomas replied in a friendly mocking manner. “Yet another flag has been raised! What more nonsense will assail us in the coming moments? Find out next time on Dargon Blla Zee!”

Axton stopped what he was about to do and shot a concerned look Thomas’ way.

“Are you… alright?”

“Never better.” Said a sarcastic man in a Spider-Can. “Why do you ask?”

“Well, I’ve never heard of a, and I’m quoting you here, ‘Dargon Blla Zee’. Did you... hit your head?”

A smacking of the lips, accompanied by the clicking of a tongue began Thomas’ reply, which came immediately after.

“Man, we don’t f*ck with them. Better to occasionally admit defeat and use non-licensed nonsense names than risk a few overactive corporate morons sending an army of lawyers after you for daring to try and show your love of their stuff. After all, how dare people try and give you free press, free advertising, and free attention, all while bringing in new people to your franchise. The nerve of some people; going out of their way to show their love at no cost to you or your shareholders!”

“I get it, I get it.” With a nod, Axton set his gaze back towards the ruined city. “Now, shall we get this show on the road, or are we going to need a bit more time? I kinda want to get back to fighting giant metal men armed with guns and melee weapons, if at all possible.”

“Well,..” Thomas rolled his head around and acted like a reluctant adult dealing with a small child. “I guess we can do that. If you really want to deal with the consequences of it, I mean.”

“Then kick in the beats and let’s get this party started.”

“Plan A?”

“Yes.” As those words left his lips, Axton’s face manifested a massive grin. “We go with Plan A, and if that doesn’t work, we improvise.”

“Because,” replied the man in the nearest War Suit. “in the end, no plan ever truly survives contact with the enemy.”

“All’s fair in love, war, and giant robot fights.”

“I’m fairly certain that isn’t how the saying goes,” Thomas retorted, “but it doesn’t matter.

…

The day began to break as two War Suits positioned themselves appropriately at the behest of their pilots. Before them were at least a dozen-odd War Suits, all in various states of disrepair, all of them utterly empty of any organic pilots save for the remains of a few and the influence of those controlling them remotely.

And, while there was a decent distance between the two sides, that was the point. After all, the pair of pilots that were about to attack had planned to take the enemy by storm, but only once the final condition that they needed had been met.

And it was in the few moments where the light of the nearest star began to breach the cover of the hill that Axton and Thomas were standing on that the first actions were taken, when Spider-Can elevated its heavier main weapon and began to fire its twin 20mm autocannons in short, concentrated bursts.

This was the sign that the final battle, or at least the battle leading up to the final battle, was beginning. As the sun blinded the damaged visual and thermal sensors of the puppeteered husks, a cacophonous din of random noise began to flood the battlefield from nearly every angle.

Axton and Thomas had prepared for the eventuality that their foes might have sonic sensors, but this proved to be an unneeded precaution, as those that did have such tech were damaged enough that they were rendered useless. Still, though, the blinding light of the sun mixed with the sound-based disturbance caused a few of the more prepared husks to no longer aim true.

This was compounded by the fact that both Franken and Spider-Can had already begun to move themselves from their earlier positions, and with their foes blinded and disorientated, the pair of War Suits got in closer than the enemy forces would have liked before the shock wore off. Though the shots were not fired with the overt intent to damage anything of note, a fair few of Spider-Can’s shells managed to score hits on the empty vessels, doing a decent bit of damage while not scoring a direct kill.

But that didn’t matter much anymore, as Franken had already pushed itself faster than ever before and jabbed a giant combat knife into the leading controlled husk. Meanwhile, the other piloted War Suit had already both closed the distance and made some more, though not by scuttling or hovering.

Once close enough, Spider-Can had pushed its hover system to its limits and activated the few jump jets that it had, sending the multi-legged mech flying high above the fight at an astounding speed, only for the skills of its pilot to make themselves known and direct the heavy piece of mobile metal towards a new position from where it could rain down death from above.

Once the dazed puppeteers managed to lower the sensitivity of their puppets’ systems they quickly realized that they were no longer in an advantageous position, with their foe hundreds of meters away. In fact, a few had already had their strings cut by Franken’s knives, while four others were now broken beyond any hope of control after a few well-aimed shells slammed into them from both above and behind.

Understanding that their positions were untenable, they remained bid a hasty retreat deeper into the city. They had detailed knowledge of the place, so they should, by their own belief, have been able to hunt the two piloted War Suits down in the maze of streets and collapsed buildings. This was not to be, because Players had access to minimaps, which included within them the ability to (usually) see where a foe was before you even made contact with them.

Plus, both Players had already set a few traps down ahead of time during their recon behind enemy lines, and the best places to spring an ambush on unwary attackers were now deathtraps that targeted the defending party. But the fun was only just getting started, and the cheaters deeper into the city had already called in more support.

New War Suits joined the defense, despite them not being a part of the game up till now. But to Axton and Thomas, they were just more Exp to gain, and more loot to pilfer from the world at large.